Moving On
by Marie the Hedgecat
Summary: Shadow is wandering through a city, thinking about his past.


A/N: As the summary says, this is a fic where Shadow is wandering through a city. Memories of his past begin to come back to him. But the city is not quite as it seems.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but this plot. The rest belongs to Sonic Team.

-

_Where am I?_

Shadow walked along the lonely street, stepping over debris from delapidated buildings. He had no idea where he was. It seemed to be the remains of a, possibly once prosperous, city. He didn't mind that it was deserted. In fact, he liked it that way. There was no one to bug him while he was thinking.

No matter how hard he tried to force himself not to, he couldn't help but still think of the girl that had saved his life. Maria. As much as he wanted to forget what had happened to her, as much as he wanted to cast away the pain of those good memories that he could never relive, he just couldn't forget. In a way, it sickened him. He, the ultimate life form, was being brought down by some weak, dead human.

But on the inside, he had to admit that it wasn't his fault. She had once brought him so much happieness. As he walked, he noticed the city was beginning to look like somewhere he had once been. In a strange way, it seemed vaguely familiar. But he didn't care. He was content with being left alone to just think. To wind down, ignore the hellish world for a while. And, as much as he hated to admit it, to give one last, feeble try at remembering some more of his past. But after this, after his thoughts were interrupted, he was going to cast this away as he swore he would. He would put the past behind himself, once and for all. But in the meantime, he wanted to try to remember again, for old times sake. Just once more.

He looked to the remains of a building as he slowed down, trying to look for a place to sit down. He wasn't sure how long he'd been walking, but his legs were, admittedly, beginning to tire a little. The building reminded him of Central City after the Black Arms, some strange aliens, had had their way with it. Those aliens confused the black hedgehog. Especially their leader, Black Doom. They had tried to use him to destroy the humans. They manipulated his mind. And yet, they seemed to have some important connection to his past. The very thought of being a creation of Black Doom's disgusted him.

But he was going to put the past behind himself. He didn't have to think about Black Doom anymore. Nor did he have to think of Maria or Gerald. Sure, he was going to miss them. A lot. But that didn't matter. They were gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. He had two options. Sit and mope for the rest of his eternal life, or get on with life and try to keep himself content. He prefered the second option, for obvious reasons.

He sat on a piece of broken building in front of the delapidated structure he had noticed earlier. He looked into the clouded, mostly destroied glass of what was once a window and began to concentrate. This was his last chance to remember Maria before he put her behind himself. He wanted to make good use of his time.

As a fragment of a memory began to creep its way into his mind, he couldn't help but let a small, almost unnoticeable smile cross his face.

-

Maria was looking out the window of the ARK almost sadly. That was the sight Shadow was greeted with as he entered Maria's room to say good morning. The hedgehog immediatly ran to the girl's side to see what was wrong.

"Maria, are you sad about something?" Shadow asked innocently, almost like a child. He had just been created recently, so he was still having trouble with emotions. Upon numerous occasions had he gotten things confused with saddness. But, just in case he was right this time, he still wanted to make sure Maria was okay.

Maria hadn't noticed that he had walked in. She looked to him finally and sighed.

"No, I'm all right," she sighed. "I'm just feeling a little blue."

Shadow stared at her blankly. Another thing he hadn't gotten down was sayings like that.

"You could just change into a different outfit if you don't want to wear blue." he explained. "I can leave so you can get changed if you want."

"No, feeling blue means that you feel a little sad." Maria explained.

"Oh." Shadow felt very stupid right then. "Uh... Why are you feeling sad?"

Maria sighed again and looked outside the window, staring longingly at the green and blue planet underneath. Shadow sat down on a chair next to her and looked outside as well, wondering what was so interesting out there.

"I'm not sure." Maria admitted. "I... I just want to visit Earth really badly."

Shadow nodded to show he understood. He had to agree, Earth was a mysterious place that seemed like it'd be fun to explore.

"Well, maybe we can go there someday." Shadow consoled, trying his hardest to cheer Maria up. "I'll go there someday and I'll take you with me. I promise."

Maria smiled brightly. "Thank you, Shadow"

-

Shadow sighed at the memory. Looking back on it, he figured he shouldn't have made that promise to Maria. Earth was a horrible place, plagued with war and discrimination. Just the thought of the planet, the others that lived on it, disgusted him greatly.

He stood back up, feeling rested enough to keep walking. He was surprised that a memory was able to come back to him so easily.

_It must be the isolation. I have none of those disgusting creatures clouding my thoughts._

He was expecting someone to come along at any minute and whisk him away from his thoughts to play hero again. That always seemed to happen when he was in deep thought. But there was no sign of anyone. Just himself and a bunch of delapidated buildings. He had all the time in the world to just zone out and recall his happier memories. It felt good to be able to do this.

-

"Where is everybody?" Shadow asked himself as he wandered one of the numerous corridors in the Space Collony. It was late into the evening and he hadn't seen anyone all day. He was beginning to worry about them, but not enough to feel fear for them. There had to be a logical explanation for this. Perhaps they were playing some sort of game?

Suddenly, he noticed Maria standing in the middle of the corridor. He ran to her immediatly.

"Maria!" he called, stopping as he got closer to her. "Where is everybody?"

Maria giggled and took Shadow's wrist, leading him somewhere else. Now Shadow was feeling _really_ confused. Where was Maria taking him? And why was she looking so ecstatic? None the less, he had to follow her if he wnted to know what was going on.

After a minute or so, they got to the large kitchen. Shadow stared at the door to the room as if it was the strangest thing he had ever seen in his life.

"Maria, why did you lead me here?" Shadow asked.

"Go in." Maria instructed, still smiling.

Shadow did as she said and entered the dark kitchen. He stood there looking as if he was staring into the embodiment of insanity. Why would Maria lead him to the kitchen? He reached for the light switch and turned the light on. Right after he did that, he was surprised to see everyone jump out from behind stuff exclaiming, "Surprise!".

"Maria, what is this?" Shadow asked as he looked around the room. He noticed a large cake on the table in the middle of the room.

"It's your birthday, silly!" Maria explained. "We wanted to surprise you!"

"Birth... day?" Shadow questioned. "But, I wasn't born. How can I celebrate a day that never happened?"

"Creation is just the same as birth." Gerald explained. "Exactly one year was the day you first opened your eyes. So this is like your birthday."

Shadow looked around the room, unsure of what to think of the situation. The cake did look pretty good. And it seemed as if everyone had pitched in to celebrate it. He couldn't help but let a small smile appear on his muzzle. Maybe this wouldn't be so stupid after all.

-

_I remember that now. That was an interesting day._

Shadow felt weird. He almost wanted to keep remembering. But that wasn't an option. He had to cast away these feelings. Otherwise, people like Black Doom and Doctor Eggman could take advantage of him. He was getting sick of that by now.

He began to take a look at the city again, to keep his mind off of his memories. It looked like the kind of place a certain, smug, blue little hedgehog would hate. It was lonely without anyone to live in it or fix it up. It was almost depressing. That was a huge difference in Sonic and Shadow. Sonic prefered noise and being around people, where as Shadow prefered the quiet and isolation.

Shadow looked to the sky for the first time in a long while. The sun was beginning to set, and the sky was a pretty orangish color. Not that Shadow thought it was pretty. He'd rather see stars in the late night sky. But right then, he wanted to find a place to sleep for the night. He began to run to get out of the city.

After a while, he got to the edge of the city and stopped. There was a small puddle on the ground, bringing back one more memory.

-

Shadow and Maria were wandering around on the ARK. The Artificial Chaos expirements had recently gotten loose, and it was Shadow's job to stop them. Maria just tagged along. But, as long as Maria didn't get hurt, Shadow didn't mind. It was actually kind of nice having company.

"Shadow, look out!" Maria warned.

Shadow looked ahead of himself and saw one of the Artificial Chaos expirements close by. He ran to it, ready to make easy work of the creature. Suddenly, the blue creature lashed it's tendrils at him, capturing his arms. Shadow winced as it squoze his arms tightly. The creature quickly lifted him up and threw him at the floor. His body connected with the floor with a sickening crunch.

But he was the ultimate life form. He couldn't let something like a screwed up expirement defeat him so easily. Grunting, he stood back up, only to be thrown back down. He could feel fresh blood running down his arms by now. Shakily, he stood back up again only to be thrown back down even more violently. He could feel blood all over now. And he could, very faintly, hear Maria scream.

-

Shadow woke up screaming. He was sweating and shivering. He gripped his blanket tightly, trying to remember what had scared him so badly. What in the world had he dreamed about? Something about Maria?

After a minute, he laid back down and stared at the celing. He had been having similar night terrors a lot recently. Always about wandering around in some depressing city, still thinking about the past. He was getting a little sick of them. He wanted to forget the past. He wanted to concentrate on the future.

He closed his eyes, wanting to go back to sleep. It was only two in the morning, he wasn't ready to be awake yet.

As much as he hated to admit it, he still couldn't forget about Maria. About how kind she was. About how she had saved his life. Why did she have to be such a nice person?

"Damn you, Maria." Shadow muttered as he went back to sleep. He wasn't aware of what he had said, but even so, he still wished she would just leave his mind. He wanted to finally be at peace with himself. "Damn you..."

-

A/N: I'm not too sure about the ending, but the rest was okay, right? Review if you please. I love getting reviews, so long as they are not flames, so feel free to speak up.


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